On Letting Perseverance Finish Its Work

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR James 1:2–4 (NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. CONSIDER Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. It is so clear, isn’t it? Perseverance is not something we are doing. It is something that is being done within us. Perseverance is what Jesus through his Spirit is doing. To persevere is to participate with the Holy Spirit’s work to image us in the image of Jesus. The operative word is let. Oh, how we need this kind of holy imagination in the face of a test or trial. Let perseverance finish its work . . . Can you “let perseverance finish its work”? In the deepest pit of despair, can you muster the faith to mouth the words, “Jesus, I belong to you”? This trial is happening to you, but the work of Jesus is happening in you. Don’t fight the trial. Lean into Jesus. This trial can break you down. It can break you up. These are the conditions for Jesus to break in and to break through. And look what happens when perseverance finishes its work: . . . so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. The Bible word is teleios. It actually means “perfect”—not perfect as in flawless and without error but perfect as in flourishing and fullness, and fullness as in the fullness of God. A trial, in the hands of Jesus, becomes the process of becoming empty of all that needed emptying out so that a new and mature and complete fullness can come in its wake. To the man or woman reading this thinking all is lost—be assured, perseverance is finishing its work in you. Jesus didn’t want this awful suffering for your life, but he is making you whole and mature and full—yes, perfect—through the suffering. Let perseverance finish its work. Be encouraged today. From this trial, though it be a testing of your faith, will come deep humility, profound authority, and breathtaking love. It is already happening. PRAY Father, we especially pray for the one who is thinking of taking their own life today. And we pray for the eyes to see and the ears to hear and the heart to turn to who that may be in our own context—especially the young among us—and love them extravagantly. Lord Jesus, we want to let perseverance finish its work in us. The Bible tells us you were made perfect through what you suffered, and you were already perfect, so we know you did that for us to show us what it looks like. You are the one who perseveres for the joy set before you, and we bless you to persevere in and through us today. Come, Holy Spirit, and make us mature, complete, and perfect—filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. In Jesus’s name, amen.